festival films: fish out of water

Fallujah: The First Opera on the Iraq War USMC Sergeant (ret) Christian Ellis was a machine gunner in Iraq whose platoon was ambushed, leaving him with a broken back and only one of a few survivors. He returned home to join millions of Americans who struggle with piecing their lives together in the shadows of post-traumatic stress. After four suicide attempts and with the help of a philanthropist, an acclaimed New York librettist of Iraqi descent, an accomplished composer and City Opera Vancouver, Christian helped turn the demons of war into Fallujah: the first opera on the Iraq war.